
Yesterday was a beautiful spring-like (unseasonably warm) day in Colorado, so I headed up to the Denver Zoo to visit the animals. I brought the Nikon D810 and Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 AFS G VR zoom Nikkor lens with me.
The 200-500mm is a bit of a beast to walk around with, but it was certainly manageable. I spent the whole day shooting with this lens hand-held, taking advantage of Nikon’s VR system.

For the most part, I was very pleased with the results. The only real challenges were using the lens in the indoor exhibits where the f/5.6 aperture makes ISO jump up fast. Otherwise, I rather enjoyed the shots I got. The VR system works really well for hand-held shooting. I removed the tripod collar to make hand-holding it less cumbersome.
